Artistic Personnel

Orchestra

The history of the Arena di Verona’s Orchestra and its conductors began on 10th August 1913, when Tullio Serafin, with a historical Aida, inaugurated the first performance of opera in the Roman amphitheatre, Arena di Verona.

Musicians with widely varied musical education, culture and style have alternated on the podium of the world’s most evocative open-air theatre. These have included three conductor-composers: Pietro Mascagni who conducted Il Piccolo Marat in 1921, Riccardo Zandonai who conducted Giulietta e Romeo in 1939 and Mikis Theodorakis, who conducted the ballet Zorba the Greek in 1988.

The Arena di Verona Orchestra also performs during the winter season at the Teatro Filarmonico and Teatro Ristori, with a repertoire ranging from Baroque to Romantic and Contemporary music. Its ensembles are also very active at regional level.

International tours are also important: in 1982 and 1984 in Vienna with Aida by Verdi; in 1986 in Vienna again with Turandot by Puccini; in 1987 in Luxor (Egypt) with Aida; in 1989 in Tokyo with Aida and in 1991 in Tokyo again with Turandot; in 1994 in Frankfurt with Nabucco by Verdi; in 1995 in Frankfurt again with La Bohème by Puccini; in 1995 in Vienna and Zurich with Nabucco; in 1996 in Berlin, again with Nabucco, through to Aida performed at Dortmund’s Westfalenhalle in 1997; in Beijing in 2000 with Tosca by Puccini; in February 2010, at the Tokyo International Forum Hall with Aida and a spectacular Gala with Plácido Domingo. In 2011, the Orchestra took part in the 26th edition of the Music Biennale Zagreb and the prestigious Masada - Dead Sea and Jerusalem Opera Festival, with an Opera Gala in Jerusalem and a performance of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at Masada. Also in 2011, the Orchestra performed an imposing production of Puccini’s Turandot by Franco Zeffirelli at the Royal Opera House in Muscat, the Capital of the Sultanate of Oman, where it returned again in 2014 to perform Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi.

The following is a list of our orchestra’s permanent members:

First Violins

Peter Szanto (concertmaster)

Gunther Sanin (concertmaster)

Edmea Scotto Di Freca 1

Fahriye Ozlem Adiguzel

Paolo Arduini

Daniela Bozzolo

Dario Carbone

Serena Chien

Bruno Dona'

Elisabetta Fable

Roberto Lanni

Nicolae Nedelciu

Camillo Papitto

Eleonora Rotarescu

Mara Sistino

Second Violins

Viktor Csanyi

Leonardo Spinielli

Antonino Enna

Paola Pedrazzoli

Corrado Menegazzo

Giuliana Santi

Violas

Giuseppe Mari 1

Zats Iakov 1

Alberto Danelon

Massimiliano Di Stefano

Malgorzata Maria Kulka

Elena Carla Mazzoni

Chiara Ommassini

Luca Pozza

Dunia Balloni

Sergio Gavioli

Cellos

Stefania Tosi

Sara Airoldi 1

Ilir Bakiu

Luigi Galizzi

Luigi Bonzanini

Walter Agarici

Riccardo Scandola

Savina Zampieri

Basses

Marco Graziola 1

Luca Bissoli

Roberto Lorenzetti

Carlo Tazzari

Roberto Spagnoli

Ferrarini Paolo

Flutes / Piccolo

Gino Maini 1

Chiara Ronchi Piccinelli

Oboes / Cor anglais

Marco Fulvio Barontini 1

Fabrizio Baldon

Francesco Scandolari

Francesco Pomini (cor anglais)

Clarinets / Bass Clarinet

Stefano Conzatti 1

Giampiero Sobrino1

Bruno Matteucci (bass clarinet)

Maurizio Trapletti

Bassoons

Paolo Guelfi 1

Lanfranco Martinelli 1

Domenico Faccin

Emilio Gueli

Horns

Andrea Leasi 1

Paolo Armato 1

Domenico Guglielmello

Michele Mazzon

Claudio Carta

Oreste Campedelli

Trumpets

Massimo Longhi 1

Angelo Pinciroli 1

Marco Resimini

Elena Foroni

Trombones

Giancarlo Roberti 1

Diego Gatti 1

Emanuele Breda

Bass Tuba

Giambattista Micheletti

Harp

Laura Recchia 1

Timpani

Paolo Rossini 1

Gianluca Ubaldi 1

Percussion

Alessandro Carobbi (xylophone, vibraphone marimba & suchlike)

1 Principals

Chorus

The Arena di Verona’sChorus dates back to the very beginning of opera performance in the Amphitheatre, on 10th August 1913. Its first Chorus Masters were Ferruccio Cusinati and Vittore Veneziani. They were followed by Giulio Bertola, Corrado Mirandola, Tullio Boni, Aldo Danieli, Armando Tasso, Romano Gandolfi, Marco Faelli, Giovanni Andreoli, Salvo Sgrò and Vito Lombardi.

All the glorious moments of Verona’s Amphitheatre infallibly coincide with performances of operas with a fundamental choral role and an impressive use of multiple voices which allows the delivery of grandiose performances which are most adept to the immense spaces of the Arena. It is no coincidence that the Arena’s operas par excellence are those with the most chorus parts, such as Aida, La Gioconda and Nabucco. The “Va’ pensiero” from the latter continues to arouse thrilled ovations from spectators, who never tire of asking for repeat performances.

The following are the great operas in which the Chorus plays an essential role: Aida, Nabucco, La Forza del destino, Otello, Il Trovatore, Carmen,Turandot, La Gioconda, Norma, Mefistofele, Faust, Samson et Dalila and Boris Godunov. As well as its fundamental contribution to the operas, the Chorus has also staged unforgettable concerts at the Arena: Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust and Perosi’s Resurrezione di Cristo. The Chorus also performs alongside the Arena’s Orchestra during the winter opera and symphonic season at the Teatro Filarmonico and the Teatro Ristori as well as in other venues in Verona and Italy.

The Arena di Verona’s Chorus also has important international performances to its credit: Berlin’s Deutschlandhalle from 1977 to 1980, the Vienna Stadthalle in 1980, ’82, and ’84, in Luxor (Egypt), in the locations in which Aida is set, in 1987, in Tokyo in 1989 and 1991, Beijing in 2000, as well as in Munich, Frankfurt, Zurich, Dortmund, Hamburg and Stuttgart. In 2011 it performed at the Royal Opera House in Muscat, capital of the Sultanate of Oman, starring in a magnificent Turandot by Franco Zeffirelli, and in 2014 it was there again to perform Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi.